A Spot of Bother

I'm reading a book right now called A Spot of Bother which for the first month I possessed the book, assumed it say A Spot of a Brother which made no sense to me. Either way, it's a good book, engaging although slightly confusing. I felt the same about Haddon's previous work, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. But, I must applaud the man for writing a second book after the first was so well received.

[Digression: I love the following books: The Time-Traveler's Wife, Middlesex, Encyclopeida of an Ordinary Life, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Special Topics in Calamity Physics, and anything by David Sedaris. However, these authors haven't been writing much lately. I commend anyone who can eek out the second book. To be fair, though, STCP only just came out. However, these authors have either not produced or stopped producing. Cough, I'm looking at you Salinger. I like Christopher Moore because he's always making something new. Michael Chabon too. even if they're all not perfect, stick something out there. But don't stick anything out there. Cough, I'm looking at you, Stephen King. AND Michael Chriton. Seriously, Congo, Jurassic Park, Andromeda Strain...Prey? Vom.]

So, anyway, there was just a quote that I loved so much that I couldn't even take it. "How the hell could you ask someone to love you when you didn't even like yourself?" It makes perfect sense.

Any residual...confusion...has been cleared up in that one sentence. I am loved because I, for the first time in perhaps nine years, want to go somewhere warm and wear a swimsuit. I am getting comfortable with the profession I have chosen. I have accepted me for who I am and have come to think this person is alright. As soon as I started smiling at strangers and not apologizing for liking to a. drink things out of a carton b. write poems c. buy records d. buy inappropriate things (cashmere earmuffs) e. wear big sunglasses f. own red lipstick g. enjoy both Woody Allen and frat boy humor simultaneously, someone found my shifty eye contact and semi-self deprication (but not as serious as before), charming.

I was asking someone to fix it. And I was being asked to fix it. Now, it's a lot of exclamation points and a lot less question marks. And a lot more laughter.